In collaboration with the National Geographic Society, William Daniels set off on a photographic journey around the globe, to document the fates of people who find themselves stateless. For three years, he travelled to different areas of instability – including India, Nepal, Lebanon and the Dominican Republic – where he took numerous pictures and heard countless stories. He spoke with us about the experiences he had during this ambitious project.

At what point in your life did you start to take photographs and how did this passion develop over time?
When I was 20, I was a student of Physics and I felt my life was boring, without any sense. I had the opportunity to travel to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for an internship related to my studies. When the internship ended, I stayed there and worked for a few months as a salesman in a small photography store. As soon as I had enough money, I left on a backpack trip around the Caribbean, by boat, hitch-hiking and then crossing Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. I took a lot of pictures. I understood how great it would be to earn my living having such exceptional experiences and taking pictures. A couple of years later, I taught photography at a small NGO in the Philippines, to young girls who had been subject to different kinds of violence. I discovered then the power of photography for social issues, and a bit later I started to work for the French press.

Tettar Majhi and his family are undocumented and at risk of statelessness, which keeps them in a state of slavery. They are part of the Musharar untouchable (Dalit) caste, one of the most discriminated of the 22 groups of Dalits. Being undocumented condemns them to a life of poverty. Some even live as slaves, the “property” of land owners from other castes. They are constantly publicly humiliated, never respected, mistreated, and looked down upon

This Mushahar man does not have any citizenship. He works every day in a cane field for about 120$ per month. He wishes he could travel to Malaysia where he could be paid 4 times as much; but he needs to get a passport – so he needs a citizenship. However, he can’t gather together all the documents to apply for citizenship

Kokailwa village is made up of 60 Mushahar households. An estimated 40 percent of Mushahar villagers do not have citizenship

Worshipping Bhuiya Maharaj. This is a ritual that is symbolic of the resistance to discrimination against the Mushahar people

What led you to visually explore the topic of stateless people?
I’ve covered several conflicts zone since I started as a young photographer and I keep asking myself this very simple, yet obvious, question: How do we, humans, get to the point of fighting each other? What is the mechanism that leads to the hate? I’m also very concerned about the growing populism affecting every part the world – even our western “democracies”. I’ve been trying to understand this for a long time, by working on such issues.

How did you prepare for this project and how did you choose the locations?
I spent a lot of time researching, reading, meeting specialists on statelessness. Notably, I had some very good advice from the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, as well as writer Brook Larmer, with whom I was supposed to continue this project for National Geographic magazine.

How did you gain access to your protagonists, and what impressions did they leave with you?
Most of the time I meet them through civil societies. There are many small NGOs able to introduce me to communities. I also work with a fixer, if possible linked to the community. For instance, in Nepal I worked with a great fixer who is from a different community than the ones I worked on; but his community has been quite discriminated against too. The legacy of the caste system is still very strong in Nepal. So, he feels connected to the story, and had very good connections with people who trusted him. In the Dominican Republic, my fixer was an Haitian descendant, who grew up in a batey.

Batey Bombita. Children of Haitian descent playing in heavy rain

Clari Maitre and her 3 children, Esequia (5), Angel Miguel (4), Noemi Esther (8 months), at home in Batey 7, are of Haitian descent but born in the Dominican Republic. Following the Supreme Court decision in 2013, they lost their Dominican citizenship and are now stateless

A Haitian descendant in Batey Agua Blanca, owned by the Central Romana Corporation (the biggest sugar cane company in the Dominican Republic). The US recently banned the import of any sugar coming from Central Romana, because of the suspicion of forced labour

Haitian migrants and a few Haitian descendants work in the cane field. Most of the Haitian descendants don’t want to work in the cane fields any more, but they don’t have much choice, because they would then have to leave their houses, which are owned by the Central Romana Corporation

Batey Agua Blanca. Vil Jean Pierre (23), and her baby Damien. Like her brother and sisters, she was born in the Dominican Republic of Haitian parents, who came in 1973 to work in the cane fields. She applied to the regularization plan in 2014, and received a card giving her Haitian nationality, though she has never been to Haiti and the Haitian authorities don’t even know about her

What was the most difficult part of this project?
Statelessness is a very complicated issue to document, because there are different kind of statelessness – many different reasons for statelessness. Even some international organizations don’t have the same opinion about it. So it was important to me to meet a lot of different communities, which is very time consuming. And because this is a story that deserves empathy and intimacy, I feel frustrated that I didn’t spend enough time with some of them. This is one of the reasons I want to further pursue this project.

You worked with the Leica M and the Leica Q for this project. What are the biggest differences between the two cameras?
I’ve been an ambassador for both the M10 and the Q2. I really like both; they are quite complementary. I have a little preference for the M system that I’ve been using for a long time. The Q2 is very practical for quick and discreet ‘point and shoot’ pictures. Sometimes I just walk around with the Q2 in my jacket pocket, nothing else. With the M10/M10P, I try to get more creative pictures, more personal ones. I also really enjoy the M system’s hyperfocal. I don’t know any autofocus system than can be faster than shooting hyperfocal!

To what extent does your equipment influence your photography?
For me, good pictures of people arise when the photographer becomes so invisible, that the protagonists can allow themselves to express their feelings. I’m also always looking for intimacy with internal low lights. For such goals, my Leicas are the best tools thanks to the discreet size and sound of the M and Q bodies, in addition to the great quality of the lenses in low lights. The Summilux lenses are just the best I’ve ever worked with.

Portrait of Babodo Salam in his home in Moussayo. He was born in 1946 in Noungou, in what is currently Burkina Faso. He came with his parents in 1957 to Bouaflé, Ivory Coast, to work on plantations, like many other Burkinabés. He doesn’t have Ivorian nationality; his 20 children and grand children don’t have Ivorian nationality either, even though they were all born here

The Doms are another ethnic group that is affected by statelessness. Living on the fringes of Lebanese society, they suffer from extreme poverty and social marginalization

A young Palestinian girl poses in a narrow street in the Burj Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut

Sapana (Badi), 21, doesn’t have any citizenship. Like other Badi women, she works as a prostitute in India. The Badi community is a distinct group within the Dalits or untouchables, which is highly discriminated against, even by other untouchables castes: they are called the ‘untouchables of the untouchables’. The main reason is that many Badi women are traditionally involved in the sex trade. Because of this, 10% of them are still stateless today, which forces them into prostitution

What did the project teach you?
Stateless people are discriminated against on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion, language, or gender. As borders become more porous and nations around the world face surges of populism and xenophobia, the human impulses that feed the exclusion of such groups can be found in all societies. I believe we cannot realize equitable development for all, or promote peace and democracy, without addressing this phenomenon. More than 70 years after the passage of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which upholds every person’s right to a nationality, the indignity of statelessness still persists on every continent, fuelled by conflict, prejudicial laws, shifting borders, and the collapse of states and colonial empires.

French photographer William Daniels’ interest is directed towards the human search for identity, and issues of documentation in places affected by instability. He is a Fellow of the National Geographic Society and the author of four books: Mauvais Air, Faded Tulips, RCA and Wilting Point. His work has been the recipient of many international awards, including two World Press Photo Awards, one Visa d’Or and the Tim Hetherington Grant. Find out more about his photography on his website and Instagram channel.

You can find a portfolio of Daniel’s work in LFI magazine 7.2023.